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Dr. Gabriel to present at Society for Utopian Studies conference

Sat October 19, 2013

Dr. Gabriel will present a paper at the Society for Utopian Studies annual conference in Charleston, South Carolina on November 16. His paper, “The free-market utopia of Theodor Hertzka’s Freeland: A Picture of a Future Society,” will explore the late nineteenth century Austrian political economist's vision of a frictionless market, in which perfect information on supply and demand are constantly distributed, credit is freely available, and land, capital, and ideas cannot be monopolized. Hertzka’s utopia sits at an interesting intersection of reformist ideas, sharing elements with European imperialism, land and currency reform ideas current at the time, leftist socialism, and classical liberalism. As such, it provides an interesting perspective on how diverse reformers might engage in dialogue about how to achieve an economy that promotes broad prosperity, beyond the simple dichotomy of state-influenced versus libertarian economic systems.